In a wireless network, each network node can communicate with one or more other network nodes, and these communications can take multiple different paths to reach a particular destination node. Because of the nature of such a wireless network, network nodes can typically adjust or manage these communication links to improve link quality when poor link quality is deemed to adversely affect user experience. For example, where a current communication link from a network node to the next network node within a network communication path degrades, the network node can adjust transmit/receive parameters for the communication link or can adjust the communication link so that one or more different network nodes are used for the communication path. These adjustments by the network node can thereby cause an overall adjustment in the communication path through the wireless network.
For network nodes operating in IEEE Standard 802.15.4 compatible networks, link quality is often determined based upon LQI (link quality indicator) measurements. An LQI measurement is a characterization of the link quality for packet communications received through the communication link, and LQI measurements are typically implemented as a scaled version of received signal level. Received signal level is usually represented by an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) measurement for the received packet communications. LQI measurements are performed for each received packet and can be associated with a digital LQI value, for example, an 8-bit digital value with a minimum LQI value being represented by 0x00 (i.e., “00” in hexadecimal) and with a maximum LQI value being represented by 0xFF (i.e., “FF” in hexadecimal). The RSSI-based LQI measurements can then be used by network nodes to determine link quality for received packets and to adjust communication links where link quality is deemed inadequate.